Sad news for Toki Tori fans, as the studio behind the game, Two Tribes, will be shuttering its operations. The former 10 man studio now ceases to exist as it was during development of Toki Tori and Toki Tori 2, mostly due to poor sales of Toki Tori 2. According to a blog post from the developer, the parent company Two Tribes Publishing will remain, but the developer Two Tribes itself ceases to exist.

Studio founders Martijn Reuvers and Collin van Ginkel are the only two employees that remain, while the other 8 have been let go. The post mentions that a new daughter company has been formed that will handle the development of future titles, so it looks like while Two Tribes itself is done for, the two man team behind the initial Two Tribes will be going on to form another team for game development.

It’s a sad day to see Two Tribes have to close its doors, as the Toki Tori series has been around since the Gameboy Color.

Maybe. But still, it’s still sad to see people losing their jobs like this.

Stephen

Respectfully: Shut up. People have thought very highly of Two Tribes for a long time. They make great games. I love them and it’s sad to see them having to downsize. At least they’ll still be around!

I wish they could’ve gotten their shot at Star Fox like they wanted… 🙁

Sdudyoy

Although I never played the game, It’s sad no matter what company goes out of business, that means people went out of jobs.

Magnus Eriksson

Quite good games actually. If you like Lemmings, Worms and that kind of puzzling games this is right up your alley.

Ooooh… Wii U needs Worms and Lemmings I just realized <3

Ninfender

Good riddance… games were poop!

Javier Smith

Ninfender, have you tried any of them out? I think you’d be surprised!

Ninfender

I purchased the original Toki Tori, just didn’t do it for me. This one just looked like a rehash.

Shota

why even said that. some people lost job at two tribes 🙁

RockieOllie

As harsh as it sounds, that’s life. The gaming industry is a volatile one.

If they made compelling games, they wouldn’t be gone. Hope they find work soon though its dangerous out in these streets

Shota

but he don’t have to be an ass about it

Christopher McNair

So why is it fine for people to be an ass to him? Hypocrisy is justified because he doens’t like their games? It’s called an opinion. If he can’t have his, then why do you get to have yours and call him an ass?

Shota

i said nothing bad to him. but you people defending him made me say that. games where poop is being an ass. dunno why you defend him.

Magnus Eriksson

He have an opinion about how good it is that honest workers loses their jobs? Thats not an opinion, its just hate.

🙁 That’s a shame. I enjoyed Rush and heard good things about Toki tori 2.

Kay Wrobel

I know. I just bought Rush recently when they released it onto Wii U, and that title is an awesome puzzler. And it looks good, too, despite the simple graphics.

Javier Smith

Such a shame. The Toki Tori series and Edge are some of my favorite downloadable titles on Wii U right now.

Josiah Parsons

Quick! Everyone buy it right now!
Seriously.
Go do it.
Now.
Why are you still reading this post?
Just do it.
Get on your Wii U.
And buy it.

Nate

Well, I do have a $20 Nintendo eShop credit and don’t have Toki Tori 2 or Rush (I like and own Edge and Toki Tori)….I think I’ll buy them tonight.

Unchained

you must be really retard

metalpants

Not really that surprising. Their games don’t go further than “cute” most of the time, and people don’t really want “cute” nowadays unless it’s a cute they know and love… like Mario or Kirby. Not trying to diss them or anything. They seem to have (had?) a good team, but their projects just weren’t ambitious IMO. People want less small-time and more epic. Look at Frozenbyte and Trine 2 for example… now THAT’S an epic indie title. That said, there’s other indie studios like 2D Boy (made up of TWO PEOPLE) that make far more simplistic things, but they use them creatively and feel massive in scope. I never really felt that from Two Tribes. But I feel for them.

hikkerd

I actually love the “cute” art style, and the game is also just mental. I get stuck each minute. I think that is actually another form of “epicness”.

metalpants

Well, I won’t disagree with you. The cuteness factor is subjective; some like it, a lot don’t (or just don’t care). But I dunno… I don’t feel they ever made a game that made them stand out to me as “The GREAT Two Tribes”… when I hear about them I feel like “oh… it’s Two Tribes”. Maybe it’s just me, but that’s how it feels.

hikkerd

I love indie games, even though they are made by “just two tribes”. But i understand how you think.

metalpants

Cool. And yeah, don’t get me wrong… I LOVE indie games. I have a longer list of indie games for this year than I have for big-name games! (Well in their defense, not that many have been announced, lol) But yeah, for a fan of indie games that owns a Wii U, this will be one HECK of a year.

Too bad…Considering Toki Tori 2+ gave sales boost,it still shatters,leaving a hole mostly for Nintendo but for other platforms too.

Kenshin0011

Always sad to see a dev go but I’m not gonna lie, I was never interested in toki tori

McBlink

Surprised their last ditch effort wasn’t turning the game into free-to-play. Maybe they have more respect for the customers than most companies.

Nintenjoe82

I think they were probably going to have to do this regardless of Toki Tori 2 sales. I thought their games were great so I hope they can carry on in one form or another.

starwars360

Awwwwww man. It is such a shame. Every years we always over heard or read about game studios shutdown, closed and dead in the water. Activision got many game studios closed in recent years. THQ is dead in the water and there plenty. We will see some game developers or publishers will face this year when any game consoles, handhelds or PC games doesn’t sells very well.

Skelterz

yeah man its all part of EA’s masterplan to own every dev in the industry and then hand pick the survivors to rear there ugly un_intresting games

readypembroke

You never know when EA will shut down!!

Skelterz

watch the south park episode with the crackbaby basketball they literally nail EA

Entropyguy

Unfortunate. I enjoyed Toki Tori 2.

Guest

ohh man this sux, i bought all their eshop games and yet this happens 🙁

hey guys i recently started a Nintendo Podcast, i think its a good podcast so if you guys like podcast plz check it out 😀

As much as I’d like to say I knew this’d happen… I somewhat feel that this is effin’ awful. D:

RARE

With a team so small that must’ve been really awkward to fire people. “Hey Joe…I know we’ve been best friends for years. Its not personal, but you’re really not that good at programming. I have to let you go. Anyway we still on for Wolf of Wall Street later?”

Haha, well they were in bankruptcy so it wasn’t a matter of how good the employees were, hallelujah for the execs. Regardless, hilarious comment!

Justagamer

I saw this coming and it happened just like i said before…Toki 2 was awesome looking but the gameplay was just not good and with them telling us we would get a level maker than pull a ubi rayman thing ..It hurt them bad…But i wish them the best

Nate

They did give a Steam copy of the game, which has the level maker, to those who bought the Wii U version (after meeting eligibility requirements). Most companies wouldn’t do that.

Leo

OFF TOPIC: where is the doom and gloom article of Sega Alien Isolation skipping the Wiiu? WiiU Daily is so slow sometimes.

manowaffles

Did you really want another Aliens game from Sega after last year’s abomination?

oontz

Do you know the difference between “developer” and “publisher”?

abe

I’m a little worried about that gam anyway. They’ve only showed 1 section and there is a lot of android references so far and the rumours that have been spot on so far said that you’ll also be against androids.

I want it to be good but I get the feeling it won’t. and first person survival horror made by a RTS studio.

Wii u version would be different as looking at the motion tracker is an large gameplay system blurring the screen.

When you release a game on a shitty console, expect shitty sales. Vote Down all you want.

extremethunder

It was also available on Steam. If no one going to buy it on Steam then what makes you think it would have made any difference if they released it on all consoles. The game got low sales overall, not just because it was on Wii U.

Nostalgic_Chaos

What is your definition of a crap console?

We all know and are aware that Nintendo made extremely poor decisions in it’s early stages of it’s release, but those issues are currently being worked on and developed. The Wii U is not a crap console. They just made mistakes such as marketing and how they chose to go about advertising the console, and obviously the launch titles were very poor. And don’t forgot that even the name of the console was bad advertisement in itself.
However, try to look at things in the long run, and the game line up that the Wii U has. Think about how the 3DS made a come back. If things are in a downward slope come 2015, then we’ll call the Wii U a bad console and re evaluate the issue. Right now, the Wii U still has time to rectify it’s issues. A bad console is a bad console only when it has been doomed for a few years, not just one year.

It’s an immature statement to say that it’s a crap console, when there are many things to take into account also.

They jumped into indie development this last year, self publishing for the first full time period. They did a handful in the past but I remember articles on related sites talking about how excited they were to finally stop and do their own thing instead of developing for other companies and work for hire. It’s sad to see they didn’t make it. It’ll be hard to bounce back even with their new studio as their credit is sadly obliterated. Hopefully they can take those necessary baby steps and produce some solid stuff! Two Tribes was a wonderful studio with some wonderful material. R.I.P TT

Jacob D. Taylor

Unrelated to Two Tribes, the independent games development environment is INCREDIBLY hard. Remember that almost everyone and their mother makes games and in this world you truly have to be unique to succeed. Even those games that are unique may not make it. Just look at Toki Tori. There are certain things that make one game attractive but may not work for another. The business environment in which Two Tribes worked is especially the hardest because you’re using your own money, or in most instances, somebody else’s but for your own work and are liable for it (i.e. banks). Many will come and go. In reference to another article, Level 5 understands the market as well. Games are kind of stagnant if you think about it. They’re not flying off the shelves like they used to… and rehashing the same thing isn’t getting us very far. New studios need to REALLY think outside the box. Find those rare and interesting ideas that people are looking for and strike at the heart. Anyway, for anyone considering the game design business, I want to wish you the best! But please think long and hard about what you want to do before investing incredibly valuable resources into it.

icebear80

Thanks to two tribes for some great and challenging games and good luck in future endeavours! I feel bad I bought all their games heavily discounted :/ Toki Tori 2+ was worth the full price for sure!

Nate

Another sad thing about the closing is that the developers posted on MiiVerse (haven’t checked in awhile so I’m not sure how often they contributed).

I have yet to play much of the game, but I bought it on Wii U and Steam to support them. They always make fun little games. Sad to see this happen to them.

Kyle

Companies should make more games like Journey (ThatGameCompany), that game can really touch you (no ugly thoughts, pls). Who played it will know what I mean.

Jonathan Dogey

Wasn’t toki tori 2 a Wii u exclusive? There isn’t a very big wii u base. Of course it didn’t do well.

extremethunder

It was on both Wii U and Steam. It was low/bad sales on both.

davemay89

i found the game too hard. playing toki 2 i found the enviornments too simular and next to no indication where to go, i found a red crab and was totally clueless what to do next thats when i stopped playing